I was heavily into the white
metal scene back in the mid '80s. But all these compilation albums that came out
back then all escaped me. I know they were all a part of people discovering new
bands, and sort of complimented the tape trading culture that was so popular at
the time. 'Righteous Metal', released in 1987 on the small Arrival label, a
sub-label to K-Tel, might not have been the best of these compilation albums.
But it was one of the earliest, and it does contain some killer songs. Since I
still don't own the original CD version of Barren Cross' debut album, the
inclusion of "Rock For The King" is welcome. Cuts from
Bloodgood, Saint,
Jerusalem (marks the first time this
song was ever released on CD, as the album it is from was a vinyl/cassette
release only), and the vastly underrated Messiah Prophet are also great.
But then this CD somewhat fails to deliver the goods. If you put the word metal
in the title, you pretty much have to have an all metal cast, don't you? That is
not the case here. Petra and Rez might be excused as they did play
hard rock. They were certainly as heavy as Jerusalem. But Rick Cua and
Altar Boys?? No, no, no, they are in no way, shape or form metal, by any
means or standards, and should not have been included here, no matter how good
the song are. Today 'Righteous Metal' does give us a reminder of the scene back
then. I might also add that the Stryken
track had been remixed for this CD. But it is still a sad song from a sad band.

The 'California Metal'
compilation is milestone in the Christian metal movement. It helped spawn the
careers of many of the better known Christian metal acts, such as
Deliverance, Guardian (here they were still called
Gardian), Neon Cross, and the
by this time the Enigma Records signed, Barren Cross.
But what makes this compilation CD special was that back in 1987 none of these
bands had yet to get signed by a major label (save for aforementioned
Barren Cross). So the songs appearing on this CD
are all demos, and in most instances they remained exclusive to this effort for
decades. Many of these songs have later surfaced on the bands albums, and some
of them have also popped up on various reissues of the bands regular albums. But
here they were made available for the first time. Most curious is the track from
Mastedon. It was never used on any of
the bands 2 full-length LP's. The Barren Cross
track is also pretty exclusive here. Sure, the song would later appear on
'Atomic Arena'. But here we clearly get a demo version, probably recorded by the
band to use to shop labels with. Both the Guardian,
Neon Cross and Deliverance tracks have later
resurfaced on numerous reissues and compilation albums over the years. But
again, it was on 'California Metal' they started life. And the
Deliverance tracks were 2 of the
better songs "D" ever recorded! Why they never used them on their debut is a
mystery. Hero is the only band that didn't go on to bigger things after
this. But their brand of melodic metal is no worse than any of the many signed
bands that got attention later on. And they are quite noticeable, as members of
the band included Glenn Rogers (Deliverance,
Vengeance, Hirax) and Robert Bruans (Holy
Soldier). 'California Metal' was Christian metal
history in the making. And I am proud to have this piece of history in my
collection.

Glenn Rogers sent me an email
regarding 'California Metal'. What he told me shares some light on how this
album came to be, and also confirms that the songs on this compilation are all
exclusive versions:

Hi, I was just
reading your review about California Metal cd. Just a little inside info on that
record. All the bands recorded the cd in the same studio one right after the
other. We all had 2 days each to record. we also used the same drum set to save
time. If you listen you can hear how every band sounds the same... FYI Glenn

As an
answer to the 'California Metal' compilation, released the year before, Regency
Records also released this collection of bands from the opposite part of the
United States. Aptly entitled 'East Coast Metal', this CD delivers a strong
line-up of then unknown Christian metal acts. In fact, I think all of the songs
are demo-tracks. And as far as I can tell, only 4 of them ever ended up on any
full-length album, but then not in the same versions as presented here. The
exceptions might be the Apostle and
The Lead tracks. I might be wrong though, and any further info on this would
be cool. This is also the first time the world got to hear
Believer, one of the more respected
Christian thrash metal acts, later to get signed to Roadrunner Records. Taker
provides 2 songs here, taken from the bands first demo. They became one of so
many promising Christian metal acts during the late 80's that never could make
it past demo recordings, and sign a proper record deal. 2 of their members went on to join
Second Chance instead. Of course Second Chance later renamed
themselves to Armageddon, before
releasing their one and only record, 'Money Mask'. 'East Coast Metal' shows a wide span of
artist. Rage Of Angles and
Arsenal play straight 80's metal, the latter with a female singer. The
Lead is a punk/thrash/crossover band, whilst Believer's thrash metal might be the
heaviest song on the CD. All in all this is an important part of the Christian
metal history, and in my opinion, a darn fine listen still today.

During the mid- to late '80s there was a flood of compilation albums being
released in the Christian metal market. I guess they were great promotional
tools for labels, such as Pure Metal, Regency, Intense etc. 'The Axemen' was
released through Pure Metal Records in 1988. It has a somewhat different angle
as most of the other compilations from that era. Instead of just showcasing the
bands from their roster, this one is trying to highlight the guitarists in the
bands from the labels roster....

Now,
I'm not so sure that all that many people would agree that the Christian metal
scene fostered all that many true guitar heroes. So in that retrospect this
compilations seems a bit far fetched. The only one featured here that I feel
deserves a tag like that is Rex Carroll from
Whitecross. They should have at least featured
Jeff Scheetz! Sure, there are lots of great players represented here. But I wouldn't call them guitar heroes, and most of them aren't even worth
highlighted as excellent players at all. Also, a compilation like this should
perhaps foremost contain instrumental stuff, or solo work. But the only
instrumental here is Saint's "Retuning".

This
album works best as a timeframe picture. This is a glance back at Christian
metal history in the making. Some of the favorite bands from that era are here,
and Pure Metal did have an impressive line of acts! Several tracks are featured
here even before they were released on the bands albums. The Novella
track didn't see an album release 'til 3 years later!

'The
Axemen' comes with no liner-notes, but some cool artwork from Jeff Spencer.

'Heavy Righteous Metal' was, as
far as I can tell, the first sampler CD from Pure Metal Records. The only
non-album track provided is Whitecross'
"Love On The Line". Previously only released on their 1988 EP tape, this
compilation was the only way to hear the song on CD, before the band re-recorded
it in 2005. Another first-time-on-CD track here is Tempest's "Metal Mission".
Save for the crappy CDR "reissue" entitled 'Limited Edition' Mick Rowe sold
through his website, this is the only place this song is available on CD. Other
choice cuts include Messiah Prophet's
"Heavy Metal Thunder" and Bride's "Metal
Might". All in all a cool compilation CD to put on to listen to some classic
Christian metal. Oh, and did Rage Of
Angels appear on every Christian metal sampler prior to the release of their
album? I also dig the classy artwork by Jeff Spencer.

Compilation albums are sometimes a great way to discover new bands. Other times
they contain rare tracks from bands you are already interested in. This sampler
CD from Epic records didn't really contain any new bands I wasn't already
familiar with (except for Slammin' Watusis, but more on them later). What
peaked my interest here though was the 2 tracks from Fifth Angel's debut album. At the
time I could not find this album on CD anywhere, and I was very eager to hear
it. So the closest thing were the 2 tracks presented here. It didn't exactly
hurt that it cost under 2$, and that it contained slammin' tracks from
Sanctuary and Riot also! But something is really wrong
with a record company that finishes of a sampler, filled with stellar heavy
metal acts, with a ska band!! Who the heck thought that would be a great idea?
did they run out of metal bands? Do they actually think Slammin' Watusis
share the same audience as the rest of these bands? As far as I'm concerned,
this CD stops after track 6!

Regency Records put out the coolest Christian metal compilations during the late 80's.
This is chapter 2 in their 'Underground Metal' series. And just like the title
reveals, this is a collection of bands still in the demo stages. Ok, some of
them advanced to signing deals, and released proper albums, but sadly most of
them never got further than releasing a demo or two. And for other acts, this
compilation disc was their 15 minutes of fame. In fact, this CD might be one of
the larger collections of obscure Christian metal acts in existence.
Thresher,
for instance, should have become as big as many of their contemporary Christian
thrash metal acts. And their one and only demo, entitled 'Totally Possessed', is
one of the most sought after Christian thrash metal gems, that has yet to see a
CD release. Another obscure act is Image. I couldn't even find a single
piece of information on them anywhere on the internet, but I find their
Tempest-esq metal to be quite good.
IronWrath is a band I could see have a cult following today, but I'd not
even heard of them prior to buying this CD. Their brand of epic and spaced out
heavy metal should go right at home with lovers of classic US metal. I've later
learned that members from IronWrath went on to form Holy Right,
who in turn recorded 'Stand As One', another highly sought after Christian metal
gem. Not all of
these bands were good enough to get signed, and thus forever bound to the
underground. But then again, many other signed acts were way worse than most
here. 'Underground Metal 2' works well as a documentary of the underground
Christian metal movement during the last part of the 80's. The track listing on
the back of the CD is way wrong! I put the correct order of the songs here.

Collecting Christian metal albums have been a favorite endevour of mine for a long time.
And after I got the internet, and discovered all the compilation albums that I
missed during the heyday of the movement, it became almost an obsession at times
to track down as many of them as possible. Now, many of the earliest Christian
metal compilations are essential, as they include material that is still
unreleased other places, either by bands that never made it any further than the
demo stages, or be it demo tracks from more known bands, that never made it to
any full-length albums. But as the movement grew bigger, these compilation CD's
became more and more a way for record companies to plug their bands. 'Heavy
Righteous Metal II' is more or less such a promotion tool. Not only did Pure
Metal Records steal the title from K-Tel, and their 'Righteous
Metal'-series, but they have only included 1 song, as far as I know, that never
have seen the light of day on any subsequent record. Thus this track, from the
band Legacy, is reason enough to own this disc. I must say though, that
it is a cool look into many of the bands that was singed to the label at the
time.

Rock Aid Armenia was a humanitarian effort,
put together by a group of
hard rock and heavy metal musicians. The project set out to raise money to help
those affected by the Leninakan Earthquake that struck
Armenia on December 7th, 1988. The aid project culminated at the
Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, London on July 8, 1989 for the recording of a
single.
Originally the organizers planned for a benefit concert in
Moscow, but plans fell through, and an album was recorded instead. The project
was created and coordinated by international charity campaigner Jon Dee and Paul
Lowell. The recording consisted of original tracks by several contemporary hard
rock artist.
The project is mostly remembered for a re-recording of Deep Purple’s "Smoke on the Water", with different vocalists singing each verse.
The single made it to the British Top 40. Musicians involved in the
recording of the song included Bryan Adams, Geoff Beauchamp, Ritchie Blackmore,
Bruce Dickinson, Geoff Downes, Keith Emerson, Ian Gillan, David Gilmour, Tony
Iommi, Alex Lifeson, Brian May, Paul Rodgers, Chris Squire and Roger Taylor.
John Paul Jones and Jon Lord were credited as "helping" on the track. The
rehearsals of the re-recording of "Smoke on the Water" were filmed and released in
the same year on video as 'Rock Aid Armenia: Making of Smoke on the Water', along
with interviews and a video clip for the single. 'Rock Aid Armenia: The Earthquake Album'
and 'Rock Aid Armenia: The Earth Hour Video' were released in 1990. The Japanese
version of the album includes a very different track list, with other bands, and
even other songs from bands already on the worldwide distributed version. Here
is the Japanese track list:1. Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Fanfare for the Common Man,
2. Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer,
3. Gary Moore - After the War,
4. Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills,
5. Black Sabbath - Headless Cross,
6. Led Zeppelin - Dazed 'N' Confused,
7. Asia - Heat of the Moment,
8. Foreigner - Hearts Turn to Stone,
9. Mike And The Mechanics - Silent Running,
10. The Firm - Satisfaction Guaranteed,
11. Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers,
12. Genesis - Mama,
13. Pink Floyd - One Slip,
14. Rush - The Spirit of Radio,
15. Yes - I've Seen All Good People,
16. Rock Aid Armenia - Smoke on the Water '90. I bought the benefit
album because I'd heard of Bruce Dickinson's involvement in it. And although you
can clearly hear him sing one of the verses in the song,
it isn't even a good cover version of the classic song. However, this
compilation includes many famous songs from artists I'd never buy albums from
elsewhere. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this was the first time the
original single version of Deep Purple's "Black Night" made it to a CD
release.

This might be the first CD I ever
owned! Back in 1990 I remember going into a Christian bookstore, and ordered 10
metal LP's. And when I went back to pick them up (back then Christian metal was
pretty much a special order in Norway), this sampler CD was given me for free
together with my purchase. I'm not even sure I owned a CD player yet! Of course
when I did get to hear it, I was already a fan of most of the bands represented
here. And those I was unfamiliar with, I went right out and tracked down their
albums. Now the CD, besides having a sentimental value for me, function great as
something to put on to "rediscover" some great Christian metal bands. The scene
really had many great bands back then, and this compilation proves it. From the
clean and AOR sounding bands like Angelica
and Mastedon, the heavy metal of
Holy Soldier and Leviticus, to the thrashing metal
from Vengeance Rising and
Believer, it isn't hard to spot the
quality in it all.

from the 'California Metal'
compilation, also released on the 'First Watch' album

from the 'California Metal II'
compilation

from the 'California Metal' compilation

from the 'Rage Of Angels' album

from the 'East Coast Metal' compilation

from the 'California Metal' compilation

from the 'East Coast Metal' compilation

from the 'East Coast Metal'
compilation, also on the 'The Past Behind' album

Wow! A compilation of compilation
albums! Regency sure knew how to make a quick buck! Still, this CD contains so
many unreleased gems, it becomes rather essential for collectors of Christian
metal if you don't already own the compilation album from which these songs were originally
on, that is). Most of these songs never saw a proper album release,
thus it's cool to have them collected here. Favorites include "Attack" by
Deliverance, "The Chosen" by
Believer and the Soldier tune. I cannot believe that
these songs were never used on any of the bands full-length albums! Also gotta
love the killer artwork by Jeff Spencer.

Compilation albums were a huge part of the Christian metal movement back during
the late 80's/early 90's. And the 'Hot Metal' series was a popular one. Here we
have the 3rd installment in the series. It contains songs from some of the best
bands on the Intense roster. And what a compilation it is! Heavily laden on the
thrash metal side of things, it offers some of the better songs from acts like
Deliverance, Vengeance Rising and
Tourniquet. Choice cuts from
Sacred Warrior, Recon and a live medley from
Bloodgood is something to salivate
offer also. I was never a fan of the trashy post-punk of scaterd-few
though. So the skip button is a must for me there. Then we are offered sneak
previews from albums and bands that had not yet released their debut albums. The
album ends with a conversation track. These are small interview snippets with
most of the bands on the compilation. The interviews were conducted by
Vengeance Rising's Roger
Martinez.

R.E.X.
Records was such a weird company. They signed many of the harder bands in the
Christian metal scene, but they also had the softest of the rock bands in their
roster. And this sampler gives you an idea, as it handles both
Believer and Living Sacrifice alongside
The Throes and Primitive Dance Tribe!! Oh well, it's the metal that
keeps this heart beating, and we get plenty of it on 'ARGH!!!'. And since many
of the songs are presented here in remixed version, and some of them are even
demos that never saw later CD-releases, this sampler actually gets to be quite
essential. Just be ready to hit the skip-button here and there.

'Deeper Into The Vault' is one of the finest compilation albums ever made. This
is not your average cash-in compilation, with songs you already own somewhere
else. Megaforce Records was the first major record label concentrating solely on
metal. As such they were instrumental in the rise of bands such as
Metallica, Anthrax,
S.O.D., Mercyful Fate, Raven,
Overkill and a whole slew of other
acts. Heck, they practically started the whole thrash metal scene on their own!
And on 'Deeper Into The Vault' they have gone where the title says. This CD is
filled to the brim with demos, b-sides, outtakes and rare live tracks. Very few
of these songs are readily available elsewhere. But the common nominator is that
they are important parts of the metal history!

The
ball opens with a demo track from Legacy. This was recorded just months
before the band changed their name to Testament. This happened after their singer, Steve Souza, left to join
Exodus. "Burnt Offerings" was later on recorded for the
bands debut album. But this demo version has sounds much more raw, and
has Steve's charismatic voice. Up next are 2 single B-sides from Venom and
Mercyful Fate, originally released as 7" picture discs. The Venom single
marks the very first release on Megaforce Records. Unfortunately they have
managed to mix up the Mercyful Fate title. The liner-notes erroneously
lists it as "Black Funeral", while in fact it is "Black Masses" that appear on
the CD. This songs main riff is a blatant rip-off of the Diamond Head
classic, "Am I Evil?"! The live Anthrax tune marks the first ever appearance
with Joey Belladonna on vocals. They rarely played this song live after this
recording, so it's a treat owning it here. The Lone Rager track is
supposedly the first ever mix or rap and metal, recorded by label executive Jon
Zazula himself, with help from his friends in The Rods. To me it's just
an easily forgotten spoof song. Other highlights includes the T.T Quick
track, a band I need to investigate in further, the previously unreleased songs
by the crossover acts, S.O.D. and M.O.D. ("If The Shoe Fits" was intended as
a title track to the album that later became 'Gross Misconduct'), and the
Exciter song.

As
you can see, 'Deeper Into The Vault' is an essential compilation of anyone who
claims to know their metal history.

214
Records was a short lived company that specialized in releasing Christian rock
and metal compilation albums. The 'Ultimate...' series was originally released
on the Star Song label. And it gets a little confusing when they released
'Ultimate Metal' in 1989, with the exact same cover as pictures above on the
left, but with a completely different track list. Then a year later, they
released their 'Ultimate Metal 2' compilation, with a slightly altered cover
(pictured above right), but now with the same track list as on this CD. So 214's
'Ultimate Metal' compilation is actually a re-issue of Star Songs 'Ultimate
Metal 2' release, using the same cover as Star Song's 'Ultimate Metal' release!
Anyway, this is yet another good compilation of Christian metal. There are no
exclusive tracks here, or anything you can't get elsewhere. But it is a fine
overview of the scene that was actually quite huge back then. I'm not sure
Undercover should be on a metal compilation. But that is just one song out
of 11. Here you get melodic metal from Guardian, David Zaffiro and Xalt, straight heavy metal from
Zion, Barren Cross and
Bloodgood, speed metal from
Deliverance, instrumental shredding
from Jeff Scheetz, and hard rock from Jerusalem. The entry from the latter
band is misspelled on the back of the CD.

'White Metal Warriors' is a compilation showcasing the British Christian metal
scene of the late early 90's. I think most of these bands were still on the demo
stage when this compilation was released, and some of them didn't even resurface
after appearing on this CD. The styles represented vary from the straight heavy
metal of Maverick and Stairway, through the power metal,
borderline speed metal of Lazarus, to the thrash metal of
Seventh Angel and Detritus. It's the latter two I hold
as my favorites here. The Seventh Angel tracks are from the 'Heed The Warning'
demo, released in 1990. And this compilation was the only place to hear these
songs on CD, prior to the 2005 re-release of the demo on Bombworks Records. I'm
not sure about the Stairway songs, if they are demo cuts or not, but both
are listed on the reissue of the band debut, 'No Rest, No Mercy'. Both
Detritus songs appear on their debut,
but the Lazarus and Maverick tracks I've not been able to find any
additional info on. They are most likely just demo tracks too. The cover art, as usual I should say with these British
metal acts, was done by Rodney Matthews.

The whole idea behind a
compilation album is to showcase different bands. Very often it's a way for
labels to plug their own bands. So either you are lucky and like many of the
band on that label, or you loose interest in the CD pretty quick. Now I don't
think Canadian label Quality Special Products have anything to do with any of
the bands presented on this compilation CD. But they sure have picked some
stellar acts to showcase! This looks more like one of those mix-tapes we old
school metalheads used to make to listen to in the car stereo, or on the boom
box! Maybe you made them to show your friends some cool new bands you'd
discovered. 'Hard 'n Heavy' takes me back to those days, and I bet this album
would go down great at one of numerous parties and/or vorspiels I've been to throughout the
years. Just look at the track list here!! The CD sets the tone from get go with
one of Judas Priest's better
songs. What a start! Then Dio kicks in, not
with one of his most know numbers, but a good song nonetheless. After some
sleaze metal from Killer Dwarfs, we get a triple-thrash treat! And so the
list goes on. I personally could do without some of the softer acts here, like
Vixen and Haywire (who?). But that is a personal preference more
than a reflection of the quality of the bands. 'Hard 'n Heavy' was worth the 2
bucks I paid for it! How many other compilation albums out there have both
King Diamond and Bruce Dickinson solo on them?

During the latter part of the 80's, and the early 90's the power ballad was a
strong force. Every hard rock band had to have one, and they were immensely
popular, selling millions of singles and album. Compilation albums with nothing
but the hits were another rage during the same period. Eva Records was a Swedish
based record company, specializing in hits-compilations, known mostly for their
various 'Absolute *this-or-that*' series. In 1991 they released their first
collection of hard rock ballads, aptly entitled 'Power Ballads' (later also
renamed 'Absolute Power Ballads', and released with several different album
covers). These power ballads were also very popular with the opposite sex, so
finally we has a CD with "our" music that we could play to impress the ladies! A
friend of mine bought this CD when it was new, and we used to play it to death.
And since I can't actually remember playing it to any girls back then, I just
have to admit that we loved these songs ourselves. And what is there not to love? This
compilation delivers 15 awesome ballads, all played by multi-million selling
bands, with songs that ruled at the top of the Billboard list. Favorites include
Skid Row's amazing "I Remember You", Heart's
"Alone", Damn Yankees' "High Enough" and Mötley Crüe's "Without
You". Not sure why Bon Jovi is represented with
"Wanted Dead Or Alive" though, as this song is hardly a ballad all the way through.
Strange choice, since Bon Jovi are well known for countless other ballads up
through the years. 'Power Ballads' is a fine compilation if you're into the
softer side of hard rock. Eva Records released 2 follow-ups to this compilation.

Trivia: "Alone" is a song composed by Billy Steinberg and Tom
Kelly. It first appeared on Steinberg and Kelly's pet project, 1983's I-Ten,
'Taking a Cold Look'. It was later recorded by John Stamos (mostly known for his
role as Uncle Jesse on the ABC sitcom 'Full House') in his role as Gino Minelli,
on the original soundtrack of the CBS sitcom 'Dreams' in 1984. Heart made
it a hit in 1987. Twenty years later, Céline Dion recorded it for her
album 'Taking Chances'.

The success of the 'Power
Ballads' compilation made way for a quick follow up. 15 more chart-breaking
soft-rockers were picked, and BAM!, 'More Power Ballads' hit the shelves.
Several bands from the previous entry in the series are represented again here. This CD also takes us back to the very
beginning of the genre, including what might arguably be the first power ballad
ever, namely Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven". There is no denying
that power ballads were VERY popular back in the early '90's. Heck, some of
these bands were only known for their power ballads! Winger, anyone?
There are quite a lot of choice cuts on this CD. I remember discovering D.A.D.
because of this disc. Other favorites include Skid Row,
Giant, Ozzy, Europe and
Mötley Crüe. 'More Power Ballads' is as strong as it's predecessor, and
it's a compilation that gets spun every so often in my home.

With it's informative liner
notes, telling the stories behind each band on the CD, this compilation is yet
another fine absorption into the Christian Metal history. We only get
to know bands on the Intense/Frontline roster, of course. But it's still 16 tracks of the
finest sort we get treated to. The scene was virtually crowded with class acts
back then. I mean, just take a look at the track list! Those were the good
times. The booklet also states that the tracks have been digitally remastered.
But I can't hear any difference in the sound on this album, from the original
CD's.

The
'Hot Metal'-series has come to it's 5th incarnation. The first 3 were named 'Hot
Metal Summer' I, II and III, while number IV was a VHS video release. This time
we get to know some of the current (in 1993, that is) bands on the Intense
rooster. And in addition to songs from the bands latest releases, we also get
some interviews with most of the artists. I've owned every single album
represented here, but have over time gotten rid of some of them. That is due to
the fact that some of these artists, despite the title on this compilation, are
not metal in my book. Rose, Mortal and
Saviour Machine are all
non-metal artists, and are only loosely related to metal. I have kept the debut
album by the latter though, as I've really grown to love their music. And here
we get the bands best song, ever. Today I think I keep this compilation mostly
for the interview parts.

In
1994 grunge had killed just about every other rock genre out there. Some even
suggest it was in direct opposition to the bands represented on these 'Power
Ballad' compilations. Still, Eva Records decided to milk the cow one more time,
so here is the third installment, entitled 'Even More Power Ballads'. It's
pretty evident that the genre is all but buried when the brother part of the
songs picked for the compilation were no longer current by the time of this
release. The only song produced the same year as this CD is the one from
Glenn Hughes. Another revealing factor that something isn't right anymore is
the fact that many of the artist used aren't even hard rock bands! Red Hot
Chili Peppers, Dan Reed Network and Richard Marx? I think not!
There are some radio favorites present though. But that only lessens the appeal
for me. I just have no desire to listen to "Cat's In The Cradle" or "Wild World"
on a CD, as they are on various radio stations every day, even today! They
should have picked original songs from Ugly Kid Joe and Mr. Big
instead. The only songs that I really enjoy here is "Another Day" from
Dream Theater, and "Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me"
from Motörhead. The latter was the first ballad the band ever recorded.
And the last one too for all I know. To sum things up, this is not a very good
compilation, and I own it mostly to have the complete 'Power Ballad' series in
the collection.

All songs on this compilation are
either demo tracks, live recordings,

or otherwise exclusive to this
release.

The music scene in the town where
I live was very much alive during the 80's, and in the start of the 90's. Several
metal bands have made at least some impact on an international scale. This
compilation is a showcase of the diversity of the scene back in the early 90's.
My primary reason for owning this, other then the fact that it is a part of my
closest musical history, are the metal bands on here. Most of these recordings
were done live in a studio located in a youth club center here in Sarpsborg. And
except for Loader's cover of "Detroit
Rock City", none of these songs were ever released on any full
album afterwards either. Artch
contributes with a Deep Purple-medley, consisting of excerpts from "Speed
King", "Burn" and "Highway Star". It was recorded at the bands farewell concert
in Folkets Hus on December 17th, 1993. The Witchhammer and Ragnarok
tracks were later re-recorded on demos the bands released. But this is the only
place you can get them on CD. There is many different styles represented on 'Ųrevox'.
From punk to hardcore, straight up rock music to some early gothic metal. I have
little interest for most of it, but I do like tracks from Southern Revolvers,
Douglass Furs and A Rock 'N Roll Adventure (featuring members from
Artch and Wig Wam).
My booklet is signed by various contributing members.

Christian metal underwent such a transformation during the 90's. Sadly so many
of the bands that paved the way during the 80's felt that they had to change to
fit with the trends in the 90's. Personally I have come to the conclusion that
many of these bands were more about the message than the music. When metal
became a dirty word, they adopted the modern rock tag instead, and carried on as
if the 80's never happened. This compilation album is a perfect example of this.
Band like Bride and Neon Cross were Christian metal
pioneers in the 80's. But here they deliver contemporary modern rock instead.
The sound is completely different, and quite frankly I could never truly
appreciate those bands after their transformation. I have much more respect for
Dale Thompson's solo efforts during this time, then anything he released
with Bride. Here you get 2 cuts from his
second solo effort. It was going to be entitled 'Concept Blues', and the cover
art is even shown in the booklet for this compilations. But when the finished
result was released, a new altered cover was used, and the album was now entitled
'Dale Thompson and the Religious Overtones' instead. The original title and
cover art would have been a better match, in my opinion, as the 2 tracks
presented here are definitely blues oriented. Ken Tamplin delivers his usual mix of
hard rock and soul. Reflescent Tide was at the time a new alternative
rock band, and Paul Falzone was just about to release his debut album,
filled with melodic, acoustic AOR. The ballad presented here is actually quite
good. He later changed his name to Eli Stone, and released several pop/rock
album under the eLi moniker. 'Rugged Cuts' is a sampler from Rugged
Records, showcasing the labels roster. It's not my most played item, that is for
sure.

Being
the total Ultimatum freak I am, Scott
Waters (singer) sent me this compilation album, containing a song from their
debut. The CD also contains tracks from a total of 19 bands from the Albuquerque
era, or New Mexico in general. The only common nominator here is the word Rock.
Most every imaginable version of modern rock is represented, be it gothic metal,
progressive hard rock or thrash! I haven't even heard of any of the bands
before, save for the already mentioned Ultimatum, and
SevenThsign. And
frankly, these two bands offer up the best songs on this compilation. While most
of these songs appear to be demo-tracks only, at least some of the bands went on
to record full albums after this album came out. Cybicus f.ex., recorded
the 6 track demo, 'Price Of Power' in 1998. Other choice cuts are the opening
hard rocker "99 And Double Time" from Stone Soul and "Lost In The Rain" by
Future X. The latter is pure heavy metal, with loads of flash and balls! Too
bad that band disappeared afterwards, but I guess this kind of music wasn't
exactly marketable when this song was recorded back in 1995. It's a fun
compilation to own, but not one I will be listening a whole lot to, I reckon.

In
the beginning of the Christian metal movement compilation albums were a great
way to get to know new bands, and discover what the scene had to offer. And I
guess that is the same mindset Steve Rowe of Mortification had in mind when he
released all these compilation CD's on his Rowe Productions label. The only
problem was that there was a lack of genuinely good bands at this point in time.
The Christian metal movement was over flooded with mediocre death metal acts.
And it's no wonder why most of these bands are no longer active, and that most
of them never got past the demo stage. Sure, there are some honorable
exceptions, such as Ultimatum (the
demo version of "World Of Sin" is the reason why I own this disc) and Crimson
Thorn, both of whom went on to record multiple albums, and gain a reputation
also in the secular market. I will also like to bring attention to a great band
called Noiszgate, which sadly never got any further than a demo album,
released after the band broke up. This entire compilation is dedicated to the
memory of their singer, Juan Reyna, who sadly passed away, after a long stint
with leukemia, in November 1996. Noiszgate's brand of thrash metal sticks
out as one of the better songs on the CD. Also notice that the Antithesis
band featured here is not the same Antithesis that later got singed to Massacre Records, and released
3
excellent progressive metal albums.

With the subtitle "The
Sentinel Steel Collection", it's not hard to understand that this is a promo
sampler CD from mentioned label. Most people might know Sentinel Steel as one of
the earliest, and best, web based mail-order outlets for metal music. But not
only have they been purveyors of true metal longer than most, they also release
their own albums. And of course it's true metal we're talking about here also.
But do not think they've dug up every Manowar
clone band around. No this is pure heavy metal, mostly with a US power metal
leaning. Bands like Onward and Attacker
are fine examples of great US metal, and both were already included in my
collection. The nice thing about compilation albums like this, is that you can
discover new bands. And this sampler certainly made me aware of other stellar
acts, such as AxehammerandManilla Road. And lest not forget
about Legend Maker from Colombia! I recommend most of these bands to any
lover of the US metal scene, be it heavy metal, thrash metal, power metal or
speed metal. The slim digipak cover also comes with information on all the
bands, and the releases all the songs were taken from. A great compilation disc
indeed.

A secular record company
releasing a compilation of newer Christian metal bands is not an everyday event.
Still, that is just what Dwell Records did back in the year 2000. Dwell might be
mostly known for their cover albums, and in all honesty, that was also pretty
much all they did before going under. Christian metal was never a lucrative
business in the first place. But someone must have thought that the new
millennium would see the coming of a second wave of this otherwise dying breed.
One can always argue if this is a good representation of the underground
Christian metal scene back in 2000. But I can't really think of that many bands
that are missing either. Genre wise this is scattered all over the place, from
straight up heavy metal, to death metal. But, on further investigation, not all
of the bands on this CD play metal (Midnight Orchestra), nor are all of
them Christian bands (Lost Angel)!! And one of the bands is so unknown, I
couldn't even find anything about them when doing a search for the on the
internet (Solace). I've later discovered that the band name is either
wrong, or they changed it, as a band called Silent Shadows has the track
"She Kissed Jesus" on their MySpace page.

My main reason for owning this compilation is the
Ultimatum track. Originally released
on the 'Puppet Of Destruction' album, this version of "Never" has been remixed,
and features newly recorded bass lines. I like the first 5 songs presented here
the most. Incidentally 4 of them are of the thrash and/or power metal variety.

Flashback Records, a division
of Rhino Entertainment Company, seems to specialize in releasing cheap
compilation albums. Their other titles include 'Racing Rocks', 'Wrestling
Rocks', 'Power Ballads' and 'Heavy Metal Head-Bangin' Hits', to name a few.
Compilations like these seldom peak my interest at all. Bu this one was truly an
exception. The first thing I noticed was the inclusion of a
Stryper track, and not one of their
sappy ballads either! Then I saw that one of my all time favorite
Metal Church songs was here,
namely "Badlands". Add to that choice cuts from
Ratt,
Dokken, White Lion,
Twisted Sister and
Heathen
(a really odd inclusion here!), and you have the perfect party album! This is
actually one compilation album worth listening to from beginning to end, no skip
button necessary. Just bring out that ol' air guitar, throw your fist up in
the air, and start headbanging!

IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH - A SCANDINAVIAN
EXTREME MUSIC COMPILATION (2000) ENDTIME

When the extreme metal scene
exploded in Scandinavia, Endtime Productions was the best record company for the
Christian part of the scene. And 'In The Shadow Of Death' helped showcase the
labels roster, much like the 'California Metal' and 'East Cost Metal' albums did
for the Regency label, back in the early days of Christian metal. Not only does
it deliver some of the best bands from this scene, it also covers a wide
spectrum of bands. From the ambient opener from Parca Pace, and the
industrial metal of Mental Destruction, Sanctum and Nebulon,
through the tech-thrash metal of Anaemia and
Absurd2, and of course the
death and black metal from the rest of the band. Some band even defy
classification, like Extol and
Lengsel. The common stamp between all of
the band is that they are all at the top of their game. They don't stand
anything back compared to the secular scene, and some of them are even way ahead
of contemporary secular acts. What I love about this compilation, besides the
stellar music of course, is that most of these tracks are pretty exclusive to
this release. Or at least they were upon the time of it's release. Not all the
bands went on to bigger things, but most of them are today cemented into the
Christian extreme metal hall-of-fame.

Norway has a pretty solid
stable of hard rock, melodic metal and AOR artists. Not all of them are well
known in the rest of the world, but a surprising amount of bands did enjoy
oversees success. This compilation does an excellent job in presenting what was,
and is, out there in the Norwegian hard rock jungle. TNT, Stage Dolls and Sons Of Angels should be
household names to any fan of the genre. And bands such as Dream Police,
Tindrum and Return are of the same caliber, quality wise. Those
bands were/are also noticeable names here in Norway. Unfortunately by the time
of the release of this compilation, the albums by some of the lesser known acts
were virtually impossible to come by. Thus AOR fans from all over the world had
to pay ridiculous amounts for CD or vinyl versions of albums from Evenrude,
Dream Police and even Stage Dolls. But thanks to this compilation,
fan demand and websites such as
Rock Of Norway and
Melodic Rock.com, most
of these albums have now been reissued. As far as I can see, we're only waiting
for the 2 excellent albums by Tindrum to be re-released. 'The Best Of
Norwegian Hard Rock' is an excellent overview of the genre. It comes with a nice
booklet, with write-ups of every band, and full discographies (at the time of
release).

Metal Merchant is one of the
largest metal distros in Germany. They are a division of Massacre Records, and
this is a sampler CD of some of the bands in their rooster anno 2001. This CD
was a gift from Scott Waters, vocalist in ultimatum. He knows I'm a die-hard
collector, and this piece of Ultimatum
history was missing in my collection (thanks, Scott). So it is no secret that my
initial interest in this CD was for the demo version of "Temple Of The Spirit".
But there are other choice cuts here too. Everything from the AOR influenced
Human Race to the black metal of Mystic Circle is represented. My
favorites, aside from the aforementioned
Ultimatum tune, include the power/thrash metal of
Blackend,
Anvil's always great heavy metal and
Mystic Prophecy's excellent
"River Of Hate". Incidentally these are all songs from bands already in my
collection. Can't say that I discovered many new acts I'm dying to check out
here. The Highlord track started out like an interesting Euro-power metal
song, but the singer ruined it, with his thick accent, and mediocre voice.
Thunderstorm is yet another band that sounds promising, but their blend of
doom metal and epic metal is just ok, and nothing groundbreaking at all. The
only band I was unfamiliar in that peeked a little interest was Quo Vadis.
This Canadian band play technical melodic death metal. And they do it well! At
least the track represented here is on par with other acts in the genre, such as
The Absence and
Gardenian.

Another Massacre Records sampler
CD. I picked this one up for cheap because I loved the album cover, just like in
the good old vinyl days. And I must say the track-list here is rather impressive
too. Massacre used to house some stellar second wave power metal bands. Today
they are all about the metalcore and whatnot. But here we get a glorious metal
anthem from Sacred Steel, a blistering melodic power metal track from
Firewind, and spooky horror metal tune
from King Diamond, to name a few.
The fact that I own albums from most of the bands presented here must say
something about my preference in metal. Of the acts I didn't know much of before
I think Hellion peaked my interest the most. This female fronted power metal
band are semi-legendary, and I have to see about getting some of their albums
soon. 'Metal Power - Volume 1' is a good compilation album, serving as a great
way to check out Massacre Records stable anno 2002.

The Christian Metal Realm is
an online discussion board. It was started as sort of a community for people
interested in Christian metal music, but has never been a Christians only
"club". Amongst the hundreds of members on the board, there is at any time quite
a lot of musicians active also. Thus the owner of the board took upon him to
create a compilation CD, reflecting on the various members bands and projects.
The task was not easy, and many other acts wanted to participate also, but here
are the first 16 entries, collected on 1 CD. It's quite a wide span on these
artists, going from the softer side of the scale with bands like Elijah's
Ride and Liberty 'N' Justice,
on to heavier act, such as F.O.G. and Angry Little Freak. On the
other side of the spectrum we have the death metal of
Metanoia and Benevolence. Some
are of the more modern variety, like Time Spent Burning and Neviah
Nevi. In between we get the industrial Feast Of Frozen Ignorance, the
gothic Illuminandi, a ballad from
the thrash metal band, Betrayer
and many, many other bands, style's and genres. My favorites include the demo
version of "Heart Of Metal", from
Ultimatum, the previously unreleased demo track, "Ripped In Two", by
Metanoia, and the mentioned Betrayer tune. But I also like the
entries from Benevolence, Illuminandi
and Troglodyte Dawn too. The
Time Spent Burning track is erroneously entitled "You'll Like It" on the track
list. That particular song didn't appear until part 2 of the CMR compilation series. Only
300 hand numbered copies of this compilation were pressed. I own #22.

2005 was the year
Wig Wam represented Norway in the
Eurovision song contest. They ended up as number 9, and the whole country went
Wig Wam crazy. Of course the record
labels wanted in on their success, and launched the return of hair metal (or
poodle rock, as a translated version of the Scandinavian term for hair metal is)
as the next big thing. Albums from Evenrude and Da Vinci were
reissued, bands like The Kids, Stage Dolls and Return were
reunited, and this compilation album saw the light of day. 96% is the
Scandinavian equivalent of 100% Proof in the US. It is mostly used as a loose
term for moonshine. So this is meant to be a party album. And as such, it works
great! If you can sit still all the way though this album, then you're rock and
metal license is revoked! The songs represented here makes me miss my long hair!
But I still have my air guitar! Sure, not all of these bands are hair metal. But
that is besides the point. I love how many Norwegian artists are represented,
and I wish more people worldwide could discover such great bands as
TinDrum, Return and Da Vinci,
because they don't stand back at all compared to their international piers in
Europe, Night Ranger and/or
Kingdom Come.
Forget the spandex and hair spray stereotypes of hair metal, take out that old
and worn air guitar, and enjoy some good times with this party pleaser!

So here you have it, the
second Christian Metal Realm compilation CD! And this time they've upped the
ante just a tad. There aren't as many demo versions of songs this time, but
rather finished products. Now many of these artists release their material
themselves, or on small independent labels, so some might consider the brother
part of these songs to be just demos still. But that is just what these
compilation albums are for; to give the artists a showroom! Again it is a broad
specter of bands to be heard here. Punk, thrash, death, hard rock, prog-metal,
nu-metal and even a lot of instrumental tracks are given space. Of the
highlights on volume 2 I want to bring attention to the brand new
Neon Cross track. The band have been
working on a follow up to their 1995 album 'Torn' for quite a while, and this is
the first song the public gets to hear. It's also way cool to hear an
alternative version to "Shed My Skin", from
Liberty N' Justice 'Welcome
To The Revolution' album. And I already owned the album form witch the songs
from Venia, T˙kkus,
Skyliner, Jon Hooper and
Unforsaken are picked. I've later acquired the album version of the
Grave Forsaken track. 'The
Narrow Path' is yet another great CD to hear what is moving in the Christian
metal circuits, be it in the underground or in the more mainstream areas. This
time I got #202 of the 300 hand numbered CD's. A huge thanks goes out to Arttie
Parker for putting together these projects.

With the growing hordes of new
thrash metal bands, it was only a matter of time before a brand new 'Speed
Kills' compilation saw the light of day. Heavy Artillery Records took it upon
themselves to resurrect this classic series from the 80's and 90's. 'Speed
Kills... Again' is doing a good job introducing some up and coming acts from the
revived thrash metal genre. Bands included are hailing from Italy (Hatred),
Sweden (Enforcer) and the US (the rest of 'em), so his is truthfully a
global spanning revival. Many of the sub categories in thrash metal are
represented here. From the relentless Germanic sounds of
Avenger Of Blood to the
Slayer-esq Merciless Death,
and even some black metal infused thrash metal from Toxic Holocaust and
Hatred. But what all of these bands have in common is that they are of
the speed-crazed, furious, aggressive side of thrash. The melodic Bay Area
thrash, known through bands like Testament, Death Angel and their likes, is not represented here. The
closest might be Enforcer, with their early demo-stage
Metallica sound. I like the fact that
many of these songs had yet to see a proper release before this CD came out,
thus making it remind me of the old days of compilation albums. I used to
discover so many coming bands through various LP's and tapes like these back in
those days. I already own CD's from some of these bands. But 'Speed Kills...
Again' offers a fair share of previously unreleased material, so it is still
worth getting.

FROM ONE EXTREME TO THE OTHER - THE CMR COMPILATION VOLUME
III (2008) CMR (003/300)

'From One Extreme To The
Other' is the title of the third compilation album presented to us by The
Christian Metal Realm. This time the first 100 people who ordered the CD got a
bonus disc! And since I have #3 of the 300 numbered editions, I just about
secured one of the first 100! lol

As usual, the bands featured
here include people who were active at the Christian Metal Realm message board
at the time. So the two key words here are Christian and Metal! 'From One
Extreme To The Other' is the heaviest effort of the 3 discs released, so far.
There is still plenty of variation found here, with bands ranging from pop/rock
(The Tifft Project) to black metal (Winter's Dawn), and every
genre in between. There will be no surprise when I say that my favorite song
here is the one from Ultimatum. They re-recorded
their classic, "Mortal Stomp" for this release. Still, there are plenty of other
choice cuts here also, and pretty much all the bands I've added a link to in the
track list offers songs that I really like! Temple
of Blood's blend of US power metal and thrash is tasty, and so is
Skyliner's unique take on power metal, Or how about
some progressive power metal from The Sacrificed?
If you own the 2CD version, you have 2 tracks fro them. At the time of this
release, they were both still unreleased. And that is also true for several
other cuts here. On the bonus disc we are treated to 2 unreleased demo tracks
from Oracle. Both have later been released on the
Divebomb Records anthology release, but they appeared here first. Other
exclusive tracks includes a pre-production mix of a Saint
song, a previously download only track from Teramaze,
and the song "C.M.R." from Pastor Brad and the
CMR All-Stars.

The only drawback with this CD
is that so many of the tracks are only demo recording, and they don't exactly
have pristine sound or production. Still, this is a snapshot in the history of
the message board, and, dare I say, the Christian metal movement anno 2008. I,
for one, love these compilations.

Norwegian comics are a little
different from the Marvel superhero comics, or the Disney figures coming out of
the US. 2 of the most successful Norwegian comic series consist of characters that have
very close relationships with hard rock and heavy metal music. Pondus is the
most successful of them all. This series is created by Frode Ųverli, and he is
truly a child of the late 70's and 80's. AC/DC, Kiss, Van Halen,
Thin Lizzy and many other bands are
frequently mentioned in the series, and can be featured either as the object of
conversation between the characters, or maybe just as a subtle t-shirt design, or a
poster on the wall. So when Frode was asked to compile a CD to go along with his
comics, it was pretty obvious what the content would consist of. This CD holds 20
classic hard rock and heavy metal tracks, with a very high part factor going on.
There is only 1 ballad here, and the newest tracks are from 1990. 'Flat Fuzzpedal' (translation unnecessary, I would guess?) works well as a party
album, or as an introduction to some of the greatest names within the harder
genres of rock music. But just as important as the actual music on this disc is
Frode's drawings, and commentaries, to each track. I wish I could list them all,
but that is of course not possible. So the enlarged photo from the cover art
will have to do. My guess is that there won't be many copies sold of this CD
outside of the great nation of Norway. But I'm glad I get to enjoy both Frode's
artistic work, and his musical taste.

Trivia: AC/DC would be
the second most obvious choice for a band to appear on this compilation album,
right after Kiss. But AC/DC has a
rule never to appear on any compilation albums. And they have never released a
greatest hits album themselves even. So the only way to get their music on
this CD was to have a cover band do "You Shook Me All Night Long". The "band"
Karaoke From Hell consist of members from Cadaver, Madder Mortem,
Stonegard, Breed and the AC/DC cover band, Big Balls.